A Comparative Analysis of Social Deprivations between Immigrants and Natives in the United States

Abstract

This paper analyzes differences in multidimensional poverty between immigrants and natives in the U.S using 2014 microdata from the American Community Survey. Drawing from a normative framework based in the Capability Approach and a methodological measurement in the Alkire-Foster method, the paper finds that immigrants disproportionally contribute to overall poverty. Among the six deprivations in the US-MPI, healthcare and education contribute most to both immigrants and native poverty. Consistent with past literature, there is a significant mismatch in identification between income and multidimensional measures. The results also indicate that poverty varies by citizenship status as well as country of birth. The paper finds that Mexican immigrants - the largest immigrant population - are also the poorest.